Native American series at UNCA this fall

Monday

Sep 9, 2013 at 5:19 PM

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – UNC Asheville will host a variety of events as part of its Native American Speaker and Performance Series, including a Cherokee stickball demonstration and talks by Native American leaders.

From staff reports

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – UNC Asheville will host a variety of events as part of its Native American Speaker and Performance Series, including a Cherokee stickball demonstration and talks by Native American leaders.The series provides the opportunity to engage in dialogue and deconstruct and challenge popular stereotypes of American Indians. All events in the series are free.Paul Chaat Smith, a Comanche author, essayist and curator, will deliver the series keynote address at 12:45 p.m. Sept. 20 in UNC Asheville's Highsmith University Union, Alumni Hall. Smith will discuss the contemporary landscape of American Indian politics and culture.Smith is associate curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. His collection of essays, "Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong" (University of Minnesota, 2009), examines the ways Indian stereotypes infiltrate culture. He is also co-author of "Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee" (New Press, 1996), a standard text in American Indian studies and American history courses.Chad Smith (no relation to Paul Chaat Smith), the former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, will give a presentation at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Sherrill Center, Mission Health Mountain View Room. He will discuss the principle-based leadership organization and "Point A to Point B" leadership model used during his tenure. The Native American Speaker & Performance Series is co-sponsored by many UNC Asheville programs and offices. Call 828-251-6674 for more information.